About

Unsafe at Home Prescott-Russell is a secure text and online chat service for women who may be living violence and abuse at home during the pandemic COVID-19. Our residential counsellors and outreach workers provide emotional support, information, resources, and referrals.

We can help you:

  • Talk about how you’re feeling
  • Create a safety plan to reduce your risk of harm
  • Get you the services you need for support

You are not alone.
We’re here to help.

Women's face looking out of a window

You are not alone.
We’re here to help.

Connect with us

Our text and online chat service is available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Your conversations with our team are confidential and secure.

How it works

You can chat online with us or text us. We are here for you. Our trained team will give you support, information, resources, and safety planning ideas. There are two ways to reach us:

This is the safest way to talk to us. You’ll need a device with wifi or an internet connection to use the chat service.

Click the chat online now button if you need us. A chat window will open, and we will connect you to a trained residential counsellor or outreach worker.

You can end the conversation at any time. Once it’s done, your chat history will be erased.

Text us if you need support. We will connect you to a trained residential counsellor or outreach worker.

You do not need a data plan, internet connection or an app to use Unsafe at Home Prescott-Russell on your cell phone.

For your safety, be sure to delete your text history once you’re done texting with us.

When you connect with us, the first few messages you receive from us will be automated. These will give you more information about the service and our confidentiality policy.

What you should know

Unsafe at Home Prescott-Russell is designed to keep you safe. However, nothing is 100% secure. When you chat online with us or text us, please make sure you’re using a device or computer that’s safe.

Some tips to stay safe online:

If you think someone else could have installed spyware onto the device you’re using, you may not want to use this service.

Stay safe and cope

For many, this challenging period of physical distancing means a rise in family violence and domestic abuse. This might mean verbal abuse, emotional abuse, or physical or sexual violence. So how can you stay safe at home or cope with your situation?

Here are some helpful resources:

Times like this call for us to take care of each other.
We’re here for you.
Reach out if you need support.

Who we are

Unsafe at Home Prescott-Russell is managed by Maison Interlude House (MIH). Established in 1983, MIH has always supported women victims of domestic violence and their children who are at the core of its development efforts. As a result, nearly 30 years later, MIH has become a multi-service organization to better meet the various needs of women who use our services. MIH can rely upon its team of qualified residential counsellors and outreach workers who are devoted to the elimination of violence against women. All of our services are and confidential, and offered in French and English.

Unsafe at Home Prescott-Russell is based on a similar service offered in Ottawa. In 2020, The Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women, Crime Prevention Ottawa, Interval House of Ottawa and the Eastern Ottawa Resource Centre launched Unsafe at Home Ottawa to offer women living with abuse or violence during the COVID-19 pandemic a safe space to reach out for help.

We would like to thank these valuable partners who did not hesitate to share their knowledge and material to make Unsafe at Home Prescott-Russell go online as quickly as possible.

We would also like to thank United Way East Ontario – Prescott-Russell for their financial support. They understood immediately the importance of this new project in this time of pandemic.

Finally, many thanks to Valor & Solutions who contributed to the implementation of this project.

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